As a roommate I had at Indiana University would say, 2020 has been the kind of year that would piss off the Good Humor Man. Indeed. We've had a pandemic that still rages and whose death toll in the U.S. alone has surpassed 300,000; an economic dislocation that has left millions unemployed and scores of small …
Continue reading Have faith people, 2021 will be much better.
Hello again, after a few weeks of silence during which our lives were, in fact, filled with ups and downs, though fortunately, with more of the former. About three weeks ago, we had the opportunity to sample Mexican hospital care, when Stew had to have a knee-replacement operation. We ended up at Hospital Angeles in Querétaro, …
Continue reading Back after a brief and expensive hospital break
As much as I swear I'm not going to read, or write, any more about American politics, nowadays that's like trying to avert one's attention from a five-car pile-up in full view. During a two-and-a-half hour sojourn at the dentist yesterday, mercifully most of it under a haze of Novocaine, Stew received two root canals, along …
Continue reading How do you explain U.S. democracy to foreigners?
My husband Stew, who has a much better memory that I for dates and anniversaries, reminded me yesterday that 15 years ago, sometime during the first few days of November, we moved to Mexico from Chicago. I do vividly remember our VW Passat station wagon, jam-packed with what we thought were essential belongings, some absurd, such …
Even some 600 miles away from the nearest U.S. border, we can't escape the roaring chaos surrounding the 2020 presidential election. It reminds me of Thomas Paine's memorable words in 1776: "These are times that try men's souls." Indeed, Thomas: both men's souls and minds.Uncle Rudy has a Halloween surprise. Wednesday, on a typically beautiful, cool and …
Continue reading Countdown to sanity: 8 days, 6 hours, 25 minutes, 58 seconds
Two days ago, for a couple of hours, I struggled with the wording of a get-well post for President Trump. My mind went blank; my fingers recoiled; words escaped me. My angst was for naught: On Monday, Trump helicoptered back to the White House, stood on the balcony, defiantly ripped off his mask, like Batman returning …
Without pausing to bring us our essential yearly quota of rainfall, summer at the ranch has come and gone, and we've slid into fall with a landscape that is already sere and yellowed. I don't have any official figures, but the artificial reservoirs surrounding San Miguel appear to be shrinking, instead of bursting and even flooding …
Continue reading Then summer left us, without even saying adiós
I'm on the mailing list of Fr. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest who heads a retreat and meditation center in Albuquerque. He sends out weekly spiritual messages that often, quite frankly, go over my head. This week's message, though, resonated with me deeply. In it, Rohr seems to describe the mental and spiritual exhaustion many of …
Continue reading Keeping together when the world seems to be coming apart
The settlement, five weeks ago, of a long-standing land dispute has turned out to be a double blessing. It ended that nerve-racking episode and now, by focusing our attention of restoring the damage left behind, also has taken our minds away from the ongoing pandemic crisis here, and the other bad news from north of the …
Continue reading Reclaiming a piece of land and some peace of mind
Six months or so ago San Miguel went into lockdown, and since then we've been living in varying degrees of isolation, along with a relentless stream of news reports and opinions from both sides of the border. And yet, the still-unfolding catastrophe had remained one step removed from my experience: I didn't know any COVID-19 …
El Rancho Santa Clara 